Four Territories of Experience: A Developmental Action Inquiry Approach to Outdoor-Adventure Experiential Learning

One major challenge of effective management learning is closing the gap between abstract thinking and practical application. I propose here a way to enhance the value of outdoor-adventure experiential learning in organizational training and development efforts using a developmental action inquiry approach that provides researchers and practitioners with four territories of organizational experience—performing, assessing, visioning, and strategizing—holistic awareness of which is crucial to individual learning and organizational transformation. A framework resulting from a combination of insights from developmental action inquiry and generative metaphor intervention is applied to outdoor-adventure forms of experiential learning to illustrate theoretical and practical benefits of this integrated approach.